


temper(ature)

by TR33G1RL



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TR33G1RL/pseuds/TR33G1RL
Summary: A study on Law, Luffy, and Kid based on temperatures.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	temper(ature)

**_Cold-Blooded._ **

Trafalgar D. Water Law, the “Surgeon of Death”, distinctly remembers how cold he was as a child. He remembers the familiar below-zero of the North Blue’s winters; remembers his illness leaving him weak and shivering; remembers the goosebumps on his skin; remembers fear making his blood run cold at the sound of gunshots and the weight of a body against the chest over his head. Even as he felt his life renewed, there was still the haunting cold of fear and sorrow that came with Death suddenly snatching his guardian from his life.

The cold never fades. It finds a home in his body, ice in place of marrow, a glacier for a heart, and a voice of biting winter winds. 

It’s hard to feel the cold when you are the cold.

So Law adapts to his nature - or is it his ‘nurture?’ perhaps both, given the circumstances and situation? - and turns to the oceans, far under them. His submarine is a perfect home, the structure sound and unyielding to the pressure of even the deepest parts of the Blues. The Polar Tang is cold, as the name suggests, and it’s a welcome temperature. Cold, all the Heart Pirates know, is more sterile.

His crew, cold in their own strange ways, face the heat of battle and the boiling pressure of the journey to the One Piece at his side. Law knows their smiles, knows that there's ice behind each and every eye, tooth, and nail of each of his crew members. Under their boiler suits, there’s goosebumps on their skin. They don’t mind. Law doesn’t mind the way his crew all seems to have a form of torture memorized, or how they may laugh, low and bone-chilling, for no reason that anyone besides each other can understand. They may be cold and cruel, but they are loyal and deadly under their captain’s command.

Law is the chill of a metal scalpel against warm skin, the cold hand of the grim reaper around his enemies throat. The world is cold, but Law is far colder.

**_Warm-Hearted._ **

Monkey D. Luffy, the infamous “Straw Hat Luffy,” can recall his East Blue childhood being warm, his memories soaked with a yellow-orange warmth as if in a haze. He remembers the feeling of sweat along his hairline and the back of his neck as he ran and with his brothers; remembers the feel of Dadan’s warm, heavy hand on his shoulder; remembers the warm salt of tears on his cheeks at the news of Sabo’s death; remembers the warmth of the straw hat Shanks took from his own head to place on Luffy’s.

Warmth, good and bad, collects in his memories and mind throughout the years, but Luffy has only ever had the best of warmths in his heart since the beginning.

It’s not so much that Luffy is a sunshine-natured person so much as the sun has found an heir in him.

Kindness and affability are part of Luffy’s very nature, his star-shine smile a natural phenomenon as he stares out at the ocean. The sun is warm on his back and the saltwater spray washes up to kiss at his cheeks. It’s with excitement that Luffy looks towards the horizon, towards adventure, as he hears the sounds of his ship and crewmates around him. He laughs happily with them, the sound loud and attention-drawing enough that the rest of his crew joins in.

The Straw Hat Pirates are a patchwork quilt, different and unique but stitched together by circumstance to make a perfect fit. They are different from each other, yes, but they share their lives, warm smiles shared as hands work together towards their shared goal. Difference makes them stronger, their differences welding them together and making them stronger, like scar tissue from a wound. They sweat together, they work together, they fight together, they win together.

The warmth that Luffy has spread to the hearts of everyone he meets makes them strong, his smile infectious. The coming of Luffy is like the rising of the sun; inevitable and awe-inspiring and breathtaking.

**_Hot-Headed._ **

Eustass “Captain” Kid has always known the blistering burn of heat, has it ingrained in his DNA. He remembers the feel of his skin burning from being out in the South Blue sun; remembers the pulling of his reddened hand away from heated metal; remembers the weight of the still-warm welding tools that he stole from the smith shop; remembers red-hot indignation sprouting on his cheeks.

Wrath and passion and vicious heat are in his being. He runs hotter than hellfire, acidic words and fiery glares the first weapons he wields.

With Kid, heat sickness is not gained from too much sun and too little water; it’s born of a strong will and the urge to extinguish those who try to put him down.

Kid’s ship on the waves is more a home than the streets and houses of the land could ever be. Given his skill in metalworking, he was able to make Victoria Punk with his own hands. He felt the metal of the ship under his hands, under his crew’s hands, as they built their ship to withstand attack after attack after attack. Adapt and repair, fix and overcome, adjust and  _ fight _ was the nature of Kid’s ship. He made a fortress for a home, one both he and his crew worked on and took pride in.

It takes a certain type of fire to keep up with Kid, and he only allowed crew members whose eyes held a flame that refused to be put out and whose shoulders stayed upright under the pressure of a fight. Kid’s crew are riots in bodies, whirlwinds and wildfires with souls. As fire-blooded as their captain, the Kid Pirates will do anything to fight by Kid’s side, fire and gasoline their blood and heart in their fight.

Fire follows Kid’s wake, and he will light the way to a new world with it.


End file.
